Social status. Race. Gender. Ethnicity. Religious persecution. Political stances. Each year, millions of people are forced to flee their homes due to one of these many reasons. Approximately 42.5 million people are displaced by conflict and persecution. This results in 15.2 million refugees, 26.4 million internally displaced people, someone who lives on the borders of their region but is unable to live safely in their own home, and over 895 000 asylum seekers waiting for their claims as a refugee to be accepted. Allowing Asylum Seekers into Australia is an ethical dilemma in modern society with split arguments focusing on whether they are genuine seekers of citizenship. In order to make decisions on such an issue, an adherent would usually …show more content…
According to the United Nations High Commissions for Refugees, an asylum seeker is ‘person who has fled from his or her own country due to fear of persecution and has applied for legal and physical protection in another country but has not yet had their claim for protection assessed.’ In Australia, as of the 31st January 2016, there were approximately 1807 asylum seekers in immigration detention centres as well as 585 people in community detention. Community detention restricts a person’s movements during their curfew and they must remain at their residence at certain times specified as well as being under constant supervision. Each asylum seeker must wait two to three years for their claims for a refugee status to be reviewed and accepted. In 2011, it is estimated that a total of 330 asylum seekers lost their lives, many of which committed suicide while awaiting the outcome of their refugee claim. Asylum Seekers are recognised under the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. It states that no matter the method of arrival, any person who has arrived in a county that is signatory to the 1951 Convention are entitled to seek refugee protection. On the 22nd of January 1954, …show more content…
The Migration Legislation Amendment Act, which was prompted by the incursion of asylum seekers arriving in Australia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, was introduced in 1989 by the Hawke government in order to discourage and intimidate “illegal entrants” and allow for the repossession of funds used for the detention and extradition of asylum seekers. On the 29th of August 2001, the Border Protection Bill was introduced which gave the Australian Government the power to use reasonable force to remove any ship in the territorial waters. Five days later, 13 boats carrying asylum seekers failed to reach Australia’s migration zone. Four were cut off by the Navy and forced to go back to Indonesia; eight were sent to different detention facilities and one sank killing every soul on board. One month later, current Prime Minister John Howard stated that “We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.” In early 2002, the government froze asylum seeker application from approximately 2000 Afghans, which resulted in riots and protests including but not limited to hunger strikes and detainees sewing
An extraordinary 65.3 million Refugees have been displaced around the world. In 2015 Australia took 12,000 of them. But where are Australians placing these Refugees? Australia is deporting these Refugees to a third country, either on Manus or Nauru Island. These Islands have reports of inhumane and cruel treatment towards Refugees For those who aren’t fully aware of what Refugees are; they are people whom come to Australia illegally without the appropriate visas. They cannot obtain these visas because of the reasons they are fleeing their country … their Government. None the less it should be the Australian Government they fear. The concepts of refugees are kept hidden away from us by our own Government in reflection of their Governments own self-interest. This tragedy is classified as a modern day witch hunt.
Australia has had a long history of receiving individuals and groups who are seeking asylum as well as unfortunately a long history of turning those away who are perceived as different. (McKay,Thomas & Blood 2011).Even though the white Australia policy was abandoned decades ago it still lives on as a strong resonance in the conservative right of politics (Westoby & Ingamells, 2010). Community fear about Australia’s border seem easily triggered, which has prompted the term ‘paranoid nationalism’ to be used to describe the heightened refugee politics of the Howard years linked to discrimination and maltreatment of asylum seekers which still lives on today (Westoby & Ingamells, 2010). This paper will use the term asylum seeker to identify those who have arrived at Australian shores seeking refuge without a valid visa. I aim to consider throughout this paper this history of how asylum seekers have been constructed as the ‘other’ and to examine the role of public discourse and political, legal and media responses, such as the implementation of detention centres, as creating and reinforcing the position of asylum seekers as different and not belonging. It will be therefore argued that while we have come a long way from the treatment the Howard government gave asylum seekers, we have not come far enough. Two key areas being the use of ‘othering’ and the implementation of detention centres need to be challenged if we are to take the responsibility of providing refuge for asylum seekers seriously.
Controversy has surrounded Australia’s boat arrivals since 2001, when the Howard government took office. Howard instituted Operation Relex, a policy directing the Royal Australian Navy to intercept and board suspected illegal entry vessels, or SIEV’s (Turning Back Boats). Initially widely accepted, this policy was designed to discourage people from arriving illegally by boat. However, turning back small, overcrowded boats, and returning them just inside Indonesian waters, quickly became a safety issue (Turning Back Boats). According to the “Senate Select Committee’s Inquiry into a Certain Maritime Incident,” of the 12 boats intercepted from September 2002 to March 2003, four were turned back and three sank, killing two people (Turning Back Boats). Although Australia has a right to protect its borders from illegal aliens, over 90% of these asylum-seekers qualify as refugees (Turning Back Boats). Such a low success rate is reason enough to end the hazardous practice, but even more concerning are the detention centers where the remaining 10% are held. In 2001, the Howard government passed the Pacific Solution, authorizing the transport of asylum-seekers to island nations and offshore detention centers (Turning Back Boats). Since then, countless human rights violations have occurred at the Christmas Island, Manus Island, and Nauru detention centers (Murray). The asylum-seekers, some children, are often detained in poor conditions for indefinite periods of time, subjected to enhanced screenings, and refused legal representation or the right to appeal (Australia). After Howard left office in 2006 the refugee policies stopped, and the Australian government worked to heal the damage done to the islanders and its international reputation (Turning Back Boats). However, under PM Tony Abbott, the asylum seeker policies returned in 2014 through Operation Sovereign
After the Vietnamese ’boat people’ started arriving in Australia, the Australian attitude towards refugees and asylum seekers has been very effective at integrating them.
We Are Being Swamped: Less than 16,000 (15,800) people claim asylum in Australia each year. While this may seem like a lot, Australia receives less than two percent of the total asylum claims made globally.
The term government policy is any cause of action implemented by the government to change a certain situation and to tackle a wide range of issues in all areaslikefinance,education,statewelfare,immigrationlaw(https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/government-policy).For the purpose of this essay, I will be talking more about government policies in relation to refugees and asylum seekers and its implication for social work.
The conditions of Australia’s immigration detention policies have also been cause for concern for probable contraventions of Articles 7 and 10 of the ICCPR. Whilst in Sweden, asylum seekers are afforded free housing whilst their applications are being processed, Australia’s methods are much more callous. Under the Pacific Solution, maritime asylum seekers are sent to impoverished tropical islands with no monitoring by human rights organisations allowed (Hyndman and Mountz, 2008). The UNHCR criticised Australia’s offshore processing centres stating that “significant overcrowding, cramped living quarters, unhygienic conditions, little privacy and harsh tropical climate contribute to the poor conditions of… Nauru and Papua New Guinea” (Morales
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugee is a term applied to anyone who is outside his/her own country and cannot return due to the fear of being persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a group or political opinion. Many “refugees” that the media and the general public refer to today are known as internally displaced persons, which are people forced to flee their homes to avoid things such as armed conflict, generalized violations of human rights or natural and non-natural disasters. These two groups are distinctly different but fall ...
In such a heated topic, it is important to make the distinction between an asylum seeker and refugee. Definitions are disputed, but the UN uses the following definitions. A refugee is a person who has left their country due to legitimate fears of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, political views, or social class. An asylum seeker is someone who claims refugee status but has yet to officially gained said status. Often times, one might seek asylum in times of war or when one feels threatened by their government. It is important to note that while a definition seems straightforward, arge political controversies may arise depending on the...
In this essay, I will be talking about social work problems faced in the UK and how they are addressed. I will be focusing on asylum seekers particularly Unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC). These are children who are under 18yrs of age and applying for asylum in their own rights. I aim to highlight key areas in understanding the needs of these children while recognising that these are by no means homogenous, and therefore explain how these needs are addressed by social policies, legislature and social workers.
Compare and contrast Australia’s policy refugees and asylum seekers with that of two other countries.
Annually, around 900,000 refugees apply for asylum worldwide. [1] Among asylees, history of human rights abuse and torture is quite frequent, [2,3,4] and among foreign- born patients in urban primary care clinics, the prevalence of history of torture could be up to 11% overall [5,6] with much higher rates among subgroups. An asylum seeker is defined as a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of nationality because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion; is already in the United States; and is seeking admission at a port of entry. [7] In 2012, close to 30,000 people coming from a wide variety of countries from Asia and Africa were granted asylum in the US [7]. Asylum seekers are uniquely vulnerable in that they often suffer psychological sequelae of their experiences. There are significant long-term and short-term consequences of human rights abuses including but not limited to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder, chronic pain syndromes and physical limitations from physical trauma. [8,9,10,11,12] Refugee asylum seekers encounter many barriers to health care access, including emotional and mental health problems, discrimination, significant challenges of resettlement, fear of deportation, and social assimilation and language barriers. [13,14,15,16,17,28,29,20]
Reflection (Choose a quote or series of quotes and respond. Locate your reflection in evidence and LANGUAGE not in feelings)
Australia is a multicultural country where immigrants from all over the world immigrate to Australia. This research is focused on Australian’s immigrants who play a big role in this society. Immigration carries significant factors that affect the process of adaptation on an immigrant. The significant factors discussed further on are social factors, economic factors and cultural factors. To understand immigration and immigrant it would be explained the meaning of it and the types of immigrants. Answering the Research question, it would also be explained what an immigrant aims to reach by explaining the factors that help to feel settled in a new country. As I’m an immigrant in Australia I personally know how factors affect directly the process of adaptation. During this research I aim to prove how these factors affect the process of adaption. It is intended to make useful recommendations to the host country and to the immigrants in order to adapt to a new country easily. It must be said that not everyone experience the same process of adaptation because everyone is exposed to different factors. Moreover, immigrants may experience more than one factor as one factor can lead to the development of other factor.
A refugee is defined as an individual who has been forced to leave their country due to political or religious reasons, or due to a threat of war or violence. There were 19.5 million refugees worldwide at the end of 2014, 14.4 million under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 2.9 million more than in 2013. The other 5.1 million Palestinian refugees are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). With the displacement of so many people, it is difficult to find countries willing to accept all the refugees. There are over 125 different countries that currently host refugees, and with this commitment comes the responsibility of ensuring these refugees have access to the basic requirements of life: a place to live, food to eat, and a form of employment or access to education.